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Saturday, October 4, 2014

Impressions #15: Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2

Life has
been pretty busy. Balancing school, work, and personal
responsibilities/hobbies can get quite tiring at times. This is why I
have been so slow in staying up-to-date lately, straying slightly
from the 1 article per-week goal I set for myself. Having said that,
I did manage to set aside the almost 40 hours necessary to complete
Digital Devil Saga 2. Thus, my season of ATLUS continues relatively
unhindered given the circumstances. Released in the second half of
the same year as the first game, Digital Devil Saga 2 is a direct
continuation. For the purpose of this article, I am going to assume
that you have either already read my impressions
of the first game or played it yourself.

As the
word “Saga” might imply in the titles, both games are made to
strongly compliment each other, best enjoyed in order. One of the
things that I noticed when starting Digital Devil Saga 2 is that
writers assume that the player beat the first game when they wrote
the script for the sequel. Should that not be the case, the game will
mostly just assume that the player will gleam most of that
information from character interactions. Though not many things
happened in the first Digital Devil Saga, it was an important piece
of the puzzle because it helped to established the main cast of
characters and the major plot points which would be capitalized on
and explained in the sequel. Without that knowledge, players might
still be able to follow the basic plot, but they will miss much of
the subtext and background behind interactions between characters.
Even at the start of the game, the story does not stop to establish
the characters in the player party, their powers, and why they act
the way they do. It is assumed that the player already knows this
because of their time with the first game, and thus no further
explanation is required.

Many of
the mysteries established in the first game, such as Sera's
mysterious origins and powers, why the Embryon and other characters
from the Junkyard seem to remember pasts which they could not
possibly have experienced, and what the Junkyard and Nirvana truly
are get explained and expanded on. Again, though this information can
be followed by someone who does not have experience with the first
Digital Devil Saga, not having this pretense severely reduces the
impact these reveals have. Eventually, everything is explained and
the whole story comes together very nicely, with most loose ends tied
together in a surprising denouement.

As far
as the combat goes, the general gist of it is the same as it was in
the first game, which I talked about in my
last article. Having said that, I want to expound upon something
I discussed in previously. In the Digital Devil Saga impressions
piece, I mentioned that the game has an interesting difficulty curve
where the beginning is very difficult because of your lack of skills,
something which I have since taken to calling “Yukiko's Syndrome”
after the legendarily difficult first boss fight of Persona 4.
Without a variety of skills, it becomes difficult to exploit weakness
and gain the extra turns needed to turn the tides in the player's
favor. In fact, sometimes the lack of early-game abilities can mean
that the player will be blocked and lose turns as a result. For this
reason, some players might find it difficult to really dig into DDS
and similar games. However, if they stick with it, they can often
find that the game gets a lot easier, since they unlock more
abilities. Ultimately, the ability selection unlocked will often be
the primary factor determining player success, even moreso than
character level. It is a interesting dynamic that is often present in
Shin Megami Tensei games.

Aside
from how combat previously went down, the game presents some new
refinements to the mechanics. One of the biggest additions is Berserk
Mode. In the original DDS, there was a Solar Noise meter that acted
like the phases of the moon of a tradition SMT game, changing from 0
(MIN) to 8 (MAX) and back as players advanced in the dungeon. This
meter represents the amount of solar data flowing out from the sun at
a given point in time. In the original game, this had no real effect
on anything besides the prices for vendor trash and very specific
skills, so I did not comment on it. In this game, a new mechanic
relies on Solar Noise. Should the player run into a random encounter
during the state of MAX Solar Noise, there is a chance they will
enter battle in a berserk state.

In these
special battles, the party will be in unable to control their demon
powers, entering a half-human, half-demon state. This state greatly
enhances critical hit rate and allows all physical attacks to ignore
resistances from enemies who can absorb/repel them. However, the
accuracy of the party will greatly decrease and they can only use
physical attacks, hunt attacks, and items. Further, defense is
greatly reduced and no magic can be used in a berserk state. Should
the party win a battle in Berserk Mode, the experience gained will be
double the normal experience. Alternatively, if the player feels like
they cannot win a fight, the rate of success for escaping battle
rises to 100%. It is an interesting risk vs reward mechanic that can
be both a blessing and a curse to the player.

One more
thing that differentiates combat in DDS 2 from DDS 1 is party
configurations. In the previous game, players could often get away
with only having 3 characters that were their main fighters, leaving
the rest to just faff about on the sidelines. Since party members
would rarely ever leave the group for long periods of time, players
could generally keep the same three party members for the whole game
and experience no downsides. In Digital Devil Saga 2, this is much
less safe, especially towards the end of the game. Towards the end,
the game is much more willing to play around with party formations,
and members will often leave for long stretches of time or force
themselves onto the front-lines for a single boss battle, like the
infamous Kimahri-only boss fight in Final Fantasy X. As a result, it
is much more necessary to keep every character developing their
skills at a steady rate. This can be difficult since reserve members
do not gain experience (called Karma in-game) during a fight.
However, there is a skill which can allow them to do so, which can
help combat this problem. Since it is a fairly inexpensive skill that
can be purchased early on in the game, most players will not feel the
pinch. Still, that is a equipped skill slot going to waste to fix a
problem that really should not be a problem in the first place.

In terms
of character development, the Mantra system from DDS 1 returns, but
with a twist. Previously, the mantra system resembled more of a
chart, like the perk system in Skyrim. To unlock a given Mantra, it
was mandatory to master all of the Mantra below it on the chart,
getting all of those skills beforehand. Now, the Mantra system is
much more of a grid, along the lines of the License Board system in
Final Fantasy XII (although DDS 2 came first). When a given Mantra is
mastered, every Mantra around it on the grid is unlocked for the
character to purchase. There are even special Sealed Mantra on the
grid that can only be unlocked when every Mantra around them is
mastered by at least one member of the current party. All characters
start somewhere close to the center, and have the ability to branch
out from there in whatever way they choose. This results in much less
restrictive system. Rather than having to expressly master every
Earth-element spell to get to the more powerful ones, players can
just find a path to a high-level Mantra around it, and master that
one instead. This gives an incredible freedom when choosing how
characters develop that is rarely seen in JRPGs.

And that
freedom is required, because boss battles are even tougher this time
around. In the first game, even if the player did not know what a
(mini-)boss could do, they still might fare a decent chance against
them with a generalized build designed to take down random
encounters. While this is still true about half of the time in DDS 2,
there are also many boss fights where it is necessary to either look
them up in a walkthrough, or lose against them multiple times in
order to figure out exactly how to handle them. Without the right
ability setups, many boss fights can be said to be nearly impossible,
particularly towards the end. The game trusts that by that point, the
player has strongly diversified their skillset and has the tools to
counter whatever comes their way. As a result, it has no qualms about
throwing monsters with very specific weaknesses and attacks at the
player. Every skill can be important at some point in the game, and
keeping this in mind will make a huge difference in the long run.

At the
end of the day, Digital Devil Saga 2 is a good game in its own right,
but heavily relies on the previous entry in order to truly get the
most out of it. It just barely has enough exposition to explain its
story on its own, assisted in part with flashbacks to cutscenes from
DDS 1. Having said that, the game plays well, and challenge remains
constant, because a single battle can prove lethal to the unprepared.
Fans of the Shin Megami Tensei games, or of difficult RPGs will find
themselves welcome to the party. Others might struggle to enjoy it to
the same degree.